Peter Culley

A Polaroid of a Balzackian Peter Culley taken sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s when the dining room was painted Bryce Canyon and the lamp that came with my father ("all the way from China") stood in its northeast corner. The lamp is in my study now, and it is my study I am cleaning after 25 years of continuous occupation. Amazing what one can find after 25 years of squishing stuff between books, placing one stuffed box atop another, though I remember taking Pete's picture.

The Godfather (1972) had just been re-released in theatres and Pete, who stayed with Deanna when he was visiting from South Wellington, was curious about the new print. All sorts of talk about Walter Murch's sound design (he is listed as the film's "sound effects supervisor"), parallels with the Nixon Administration and just what tuxedoes in low-lighting can do for mood. Had the internet been more active I am sure Pete's curiosity level would have been even higher.

"Yeah, it holds up," said Pete as we left the Vogue's Saturday matinee screening. I'm not sure what I thought, but I remember the sound of those trains when Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant. "That was all Murch," Pete would have said if he were with us today.